Men’s Hockey: Despite Loss, Terriers Talking Positives

For the second consecutive weekend, Boston University walked away with a weekend split. With a home and home against the Connecticut Huskies, the Terriers defeated UConn in Storrs before suffering a 4-0 loss on home ice.

Yet, despite their first loss at Agganis this season, Terriers’ coach David Quinn spoke positively about the team.

“Anytime you lose three of your top nine forwards, it’s going to catch up to you eventually,” Quinn said. “The game ended and I’m like ‘it didn’t feel like we played like a 4-0 loss.’ It was just one of those games. You can do all these things great, if you don’t score and they do, you lose. It’s just that simple.”

BU also gets to return to the ice on Tuesday with a quick turnaround against Harvard before not playing again until December 2nd with a home and home series against Providence as Hockey East play opens up again.

“The message is our schedule is doing us a favor because we don’t have to live with this very long.”

Patrick Harper shot the puck nine times himself and the top line overall contributed the majority of the 37 shots on UConn freshman goalie Adam Huska, who got the start in the second game of the back to back series. On the other end of the ice, BU freshman goaltender Jake Oettinger allowed four goals after not allowing a single tally on Agganis ice in his first three home games.

Unlike the loss last Friday to Michigan where Quinn was forced to mix up the lines and play Shane Switzer and Brien Diffley at forward, he didn’t have many complaints about the team last night.

“I thought all four lines had zone time and did a lot of good things,” said Quinn. “One line [the top line] happened to hit the net more than the others.”

The way the top line played and an all around strong penalty kill and defense is something BU can remain positive about as it heads into its final game before the break.

“You can have all sorts of territorial time, you can have all sorts of shots, you can have a good forecheck, you can do things well on the regroup in the neutral zone, but at the end of the day this is about productivity and scoring goals.”

The Terriers remain in sixth place in the conference with a 2-1-1 record in league play, losing their first Hockey East game of the season last night and it being the first game they did not get points out of. The young team is still learning how to navigate one of the toughest conferences in hockey, and is taking challenges head on, despite missing many of its key pieces.

“We get to play Tuesday night as opposed to living with this until next weekend. That’s the good news. The good news is we get to get back at it and move past this. I want it to sting, but not sting to the point where it’s going to stand in the way of us getting prepared for Harvard.”

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Author: Marisa Ingemi

Marisa covers sports (mostly baseball, hockey, and lacrosse) for ESPN New Hampshire, In Lacrosse We Trust, BU News Service, Inside Hockey, the Patriot League Network, and a wide range of other places.
View all posts by Marisa Ingemi